Bayer and Cradle enter collaboration to enhance AI-enabled antibody discovery and optimization

Bayer and Cradle today announced that they have entered a three-year strategic collaboration to deploy Cradle's scientific AI software platform for protein engineering. As part of the collaboration, Bayer will integrate the generative AI platform into existing R&D workflows to enhance lead generation and optimization across its therapeutic antibody pipeline.

Bayer selected Cradle's platform to bring higher-quality molecules into clinical development faster by reducing the number of optimization cycles, improving molecular potency, safety and manufacturability, and increasing probability of technical success as Bayer expands to more demanding modes of action.

"We believe AI-driven molecule design, discovery and optimization will be a key accelerator of our productivity moving forward," said Anastasia Hager, Ph.D., Global Head of Drug Discovery Sciences at Bayer's Pharmaceuticals Division. "Cradle's platform provides us with scalable scientist-centric solutions to maximize the opportunities in our biologics portfolio and potentially deliver faster, more effective medicines to patients."

"Bayer's decision reflects a broader shift we're seeing: leading drug discovery organizations want AI that scales across portfolios, formats, and teams without requiring every scientist to become an ML expert or limiting AI's impact to asset-based deals," said Stef van Grieken, Co-founder and CEO of Cradle. "Cradle brings enterprise-grade, lab-in-the-loop AI into the hands of the expert scientists working daily to design new molecules and treat diseases, helping reduce iterations while improving potency, developability, and manufacturability. We're excited to work with Bayer to operationalize AI at scale and translate it into faster, higher-quality candidates for the clinic."

Under the agreement, Cradle will provide Bayer's antibody scientists with full access to its scientific AI software platform supporting a lab-in-the-loop approach, streamlined design-test-learn cycles, and coordinated execution across laboratory and external partners. Following a successful proof of concept, Bayer selected Cradle as its best suited partner from among several vendors.

The collaboration builds on the internal strengths of Bayer in antibody design, synthesis and machine learning, complementing with Cradle's deep expertise in scalable software development. Bayer and Cradle will also jointly work on a machine learning research project aimed at extending these capabilities even further.